Exams distort education
It is being admitted at last that examinations are putting intolerable stress on students and distorting what is taught in the curriculum. Even primary schools are dominated by SATs the administration of which takes valuable time away from teaching. Then pupils are often coached so that the school does not appear too far down league tables.
I trained as a teacher during the sixties when the profession was not yet all graduate. There was then a freedom to teach and learn for its own sake. Not entirely true of course, but we read books which challenged the education system. A range of titles that appeared in the sixties and seventies are still remembered: Ivan Ilych's "Deschooling Society" which debunked even the relatively de-centralised systems. He spoke of the U.S. whereas the "School of Barbiana" showed the same picture in Italy as "Learning to Labour" did in Britain. These works envisaged a freer system encapsulated in Summerhill. Things haven't got better for the learner. Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" was also influential on us. We had to be silenced. Failed teachers have populated a privatised inspection service putting intolerable pressure on schools, many of which have been forced to close. How has this regime benefitted pupils? The chief examiner now feels there is too much stress on examinations.
The motive for a National Curriculum, put about for standardisation of a curriculum was more a Nationalistic Curriculum which New Labour took over from Tories hook line and sinker. In this respect it was anis xenophoebic and has done little to engender the tolerance that we bleieve and the Prime Minister says, we are as a nation. Complete bunkum. Leading by example New Labour has taken Britain into more wars, pricipally with the Islamic world, and we wonder why young British Muslims, amongst others, are turned off.
As for independent schools an dtheir license to teach off-the-wall subjects such as creationism has drawn fire from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Posted by John Tyrrell at March 26, 2006 08:17 AM
Comments
In terms of exams we have far too many. When I did my A Levels half of what was on the curriculum was totally irrelevant.
Blogged by Adele at March 29, 2006 09:43 PM
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